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Plans to shift Toronto's bicycle strategy into high gear in the works

While the rest of the world embraces the bike culture Toronto’s development of on-road bikeways hasn’t kept pace with the condo boom that’s put more cyclists on our bumpy streets.

The best sections of Ontario's 1,400-km Waterfront Trail are paths that hug the shoreline, like this stretch in Oakville. (Goh Ironmoto Photo / Goh Ironmoto Photo)

There are as many cyclists travelling the bike lanes as there are cars on the road on College St. during rush hours, and the number of riders is increasing. (Chris So/Toronto Star / Chris So/Toronto Star)

Cyclists enjoy the sun and scenery along the Lake Ontario shoreline on a section of the 1,400 km Waterfront Trail in Pickering. (Waterfront Trail)

By Henry StancuStaff Reporter

Fri., June 27, 2014

After years of backpedalling, Ontario is getting back on the path to creating a province-wide cycling network.

And in Toronto, where critics point out the city has failed to deliver the 495 km of bikeways it promised in 2001, there’s a new strategy in the works.

“The increased density in the way we’re building cities now means the urban sprawl days are behind us, which is a good thing,” says Eleanor McMahon, CEO of Share the Road, a cycling coalition she founded in 2008. Her husband, OPP Sgt. Greg Stobbart, was killed in a 2006 cycling accident with a dump truck near Milton.

Her coalition links organizations from across Ontario in the common goal of making all municipalities, from big cities to small towns, more bicycle-friendly.

“By 2050, according to the World Health Organization, upwards of 80 per cent of us are going to be living in cities. So when you look at that dynamic, it means we need to find ways to get around,” adds McMahon, who was elected this month as a Liberal MPP in her home town of Burlington.

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At the coalition’s April bike summit, Ontario’s then-transportation minister Glen Murray announced the province will spend $25 million on cycling infrastructure.

A Share the Road survey conducted this year found that 540,000 people ride their bikes daily in Ontario, including 182,000 in Toronto.

“It behooves us to start accommodating people,” says McMahon. “Ontario hasn’t had a cycling strategy since the early 1990s, and cycling began to fall off the radar as a priority for the provincial government for 20 years.

“In the meantime, our neighbouring province of Quebec has built a robust cycling network and started to realize the benefits,” she adds.

Quebec’s 5,000-kilometre Route Verte network of bicycle trails is among the best in the world, and has not only benefited cyclists but also created a tourism industry that draws cyclists from around the globe.

There are as many cyclists travelling the bike lanes as there are cars on the road on College St. during rush hours, and the number of riders is increasing. (Chris So/Toronto Star)

A lot of credit goes to the non-profit organization, Velo Quebec, which has been promoting the bicycle movement as an active and environmentally friendly mode of recreation and transportation for more than 40 years.

So it’s no wonder the Canadian bicycle industry is concentrated almost entirely in Quebec these days.

Montreal recently announced a $10-million plan to double its on- and off-road bicycle routes from 400 to 800 km by next year.

“I think it’s a fair assessment to say Toronto is a little behind in its bike network plans, to say the least,” says Jerad Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto.

“The good news over the past 13 years is that we’ve built a pretty good trail system in the ravines and green spaces and that work continues. What’s missing, especially over the past six years, is our on-street network, because off street trails don’t connect where people live, work, shop or go to school across the city.

“Of the original bike plan, there’s only about 114 km of on-street bike lanes, or about 23 per cent of the original goal,” he notes. “We’re way behind on that one. The original plan was to achieve 50 km per year, and we strongly believe we can do it, but it’s going to require some political will.”

But there is a new plan in the works for a better bikeway network, says Daniel Egan, Toronto’s manager of cycling infrastructure programs.

“The 2001 bike plan is at the end of its road, and we’re staring a new plan that we’ll be bringing to council in 2015,” he says. “Most of what has been planned has been built, with a few pieces remaining. What largely hasn’t been built is the on-street network, especially in the suburban areas of Scarborough, Etobicoke and North York.

“Quite frankly, I think we need to take a fresh look at what’s needed downtown, because we need more than what was prescribed in the previous plan. We expected a certain amount of growth but it went beyond everyone’s expectations, so we need a fresh approach.”

In May, the city released a free smartphone app called Toronto Cycling, designed to record cyclists’ trip information to help plan the city’s bike strategy. Download the app at toronto.ca/cyclingapp .

Egan adds there are also joint projects with surrounding municipalities to connect cycling routes.

Cyclists enjoy the sun and scenery along the Lake Ontario shoreline on a section of the 1,400 km Waterfront Trail in Pickering.

“Our Eglinton Trail is connecting to Mississauga, and York Region is developing what they call the Lake to Lake Trail, which would connect with our Don Valley system down to Lake Ontario from Lake Simcoe,” he says. “We also work very closely with the Waterfront Trail folks, which is the ultimate in co-operation.”

The Waterfront Trail is a 1,400-km network of on- and off-road bike routes stretching from Windsor to the Quebec border, along sections of Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River.

“The idea and concept has been around since 1988, and it’s one of the first attempts to make a long-distance cycling route,” says Peter Lipscombe, project co-ordinator of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust.

“It’s an ongoing legacy project, with improvements being made all the time. This year, the trail will extend north from Lake St. Clair and Lambton County on to Grand Bend. That comes as a result of communities approaching us to have the trail continue through their area.

“We are involved in a project for a Georgian Bay cycling route, which is still in its infancy, and the groundwork is being laid for a waterfront trail that will reach up to Tobermory, potentially into Manitoulin Island and beyond.”

In east Toronto, there are plans to move the Waterfront Trail off residential streets to the shore of Lake Ontario, below the Scarborough Bluffs, by building retaining walls at the base and using the existing service road.

“Ajax is one of the first communities to complete a fully off-road trail, which is so well used they are already looking at twinning the trails for both pedestrian and cycle use,” says Lipscombe. “We have virtually unanimous support from municipalities all along the route.”

McMahan says the push to build bike routes is not limited to southern Ontario. Plans are in the works to connect Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie, and North Bay to Mattawa, using abandoned railway beds and country roads.

And she points out that wherever cycle networks are extended, they become the backbone of a local eco-tourism industry.

“If you build it, they will come,” she says. “Every piece of research we have seen demonstrates that, whether it’s small towns in the country or big cities.”

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